This little quote in the photo speaks volumes to me. It is so easy to compare oneself negatively to what is often considered ideal by “the world”. Often, only a certain category of skil…
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is my top ten favorite book blogs. My current favorite blogs are always over there --->, in the Blog Stalker. Please click on them! (Well, click on them after you read this post.) Since my favorites are already in the sidebar, I thought I’d talk about what makes me love a book blog.* *Please remember that these are my opinions. I’m not trying to criticize anybody’s blog. Feel free to ignore me. Ten Things That Will Make Me Love Your Book Blog We have similar reading tastes This is the biggest thing that will make me love a blog. If we’ve both read the same books, we’ll have something to fangirl about. Luckily, my reading tastes are pretty eclectic. We’ll usually have a few books in common. Your blog is high-contrast and low-clutter I have eye problems. If your font is rainbow colored, I probably won’t be able to read it. I need dark font on light backgrounds. Light pink on white and light gray on white seem to be popular right now. Sorry, I can’t read them unless I use the zoom button or smash my face against the screen. I do my blogging on an elderly laptop. I appreciate it when websites load quickly. Ask yourself if you really need fifteen gifs in your review. Or if you really need that mailing list pop-up. (Hint: nobody likes pop-ups.) You reply to comments and/or comment back I know that this is difficult. I live with a permanent case of comment guilt. There are so many comments and so little time! But, if I leave a bunch of comments on your blog and never get any response, I’ll probably stop commenting. I might still read your posts, but I won’t bother with comments. I joined the book blogging community because I want to be part of a community. I don’t want to talk to a wall. (I can do that perfectly well without the computer.) You’re not a robot My favorite bloggers write lots of original content and show their personalities. Any robot can copy/paste a cover and synopsis from Goodreads. Those posts are okay sometimes, but I want to know that there’s a human running your blog. I love discussions, reviews, brief life updates, photos, artwork, whatever shows off your personality and opinions. Your comment section requires minimal clicking I want to scroll to the bottom of a post and leave a comment. I don’t want to click a link, check a thousand boxes, squint at a captcha, or prove I’m not a robot. I’m lazy and have a lot of blogs to read. Remember when I said that I have eye problems? A lot of comment systems have small fonts or hard-to-see colors. That’s why I type all of my comments in Microsoft Word and copy/paste them into the comment box. Sometimes when I do this, the blog has a pop-up that says it doesn’t allow copy/pasted content. I understand that you’re trying to protect your work and reduce spam, but if I can’t copy/paste my comment, you’re not getting a comment from me. Your social media buttons are easy to find and functional If I like your blog, I want to follow you everywhere. (Not in a creepy way. I promise.) Don’t make this challenging! Put your social media links where they’re easy to see. Also, test your buttons to make sure they link to the correct place. I recently clicked on a blogger’s Pinterest button, and it went to a profile that clearly does not belong to the blogger. (Unless the blogger is secretly a boy-obsessed twelve-year-old from South Korea. In that case, I apologize. You seemed much older and much less obsessed with shirtless teens on your book blog.) I understand what you’re talking about I recently clicked on a blog post, and it was just a bunch of book covers. No words at all. Not even a title for the post. Okaaay. What is this post about? Why am I looking at a bunch of random book covers? You don’t have to write a long introduction to every post, but I appreciate knowing what I’m looking at. You don’t post a million times a day If I like your blog, I’ll follow it on Bloglovin’. That’s the site I use to manage my blog-reading life. If you flood my feed with posts, I’ll quickly unfollow you. I used to follow a blogger who loved taking photos and posting them on her blog. She put one photo in each post, and she posted a lot of photos. Then my whole Bloglovin’ feed was just her photos. I had to scroll forever to get past them all. If you want to post photos, put a bunch of them in one post. Then I won’t get a notification for each photo. Because that's annoying. You start conversations The best blog posts introduce a compelling question and spark a conversation in the comment section. That’s why blogs have comment sections. So people can share their (angry, uninformed) opinions. Give me something to have an opinion about! I want to participate in the conversation. (Or in the rage-fueled mudslinging, whatever.) You keep your posts under 1000 words I bet you’re skimming this post right now. That’s because it’s getting very close to 1000 words. You’re getting bored. I don’t blame you. People on the Internet have short attention spans and don’t concentrate deeply on what they’re reading. I like blog posts that get to the point quickly. Short posts with graphics and white space are better than giant walls of text. (And . . . I've just hit 1000 words. This post is done.) What will make you love a blog?
Yahweh. God. Yehovah. Adonai. The LORD. Yahuah. G-d. Elohim. Jehovah. Does what you call YHWH matter? Maybe you have heard that the name of YHWH should not be uttered or that he knows your heart so it doesn't make any difference what you call him. But Elijah believed otherwise. "And you call on the name of your elohim, and I will call on the Name of YHWH." - 1 Kings 18:24 This is from the story where Elijah faced down 450 prophets of Baal; his premise for this challenge was very simple: let's both offer a sacrifice. We'll see which name responds. The phrasing Elijah chose is extremely interesting and clamors for our attention. He didn't say, "We'll see which God answers," or, "I will call to my God," he made it a point to mention the name of YHWH. Significant? I think so. Something I never paid much attention to in this story was Baal. Just a strange name for a false god, right? The truth is a little more interesting: Baal is the Hebrew word for Lord. Now glance at the story again - it reads differently! Verse 18: You have forsaken the commandments of YHWH to follow the Lord. I have a hunch you know the rest of the story; the group of prophets couldn't get the attention of Baal no matter what they tried. But when Elijah called upon YHWH fire immediately consumed the sacrifice. Those who called upon the Lord didn't see a response, but the one who called upon YHWH did. This story made me see that YHWH distinguishes himself from "the Lord." I want to mention here that there was definitely a time in my life where I called YHWH 'God.' I know many with sincere faith who call upon 'the Lord.' I am not saying someone is a bad person or not saved or whatever else if they use generic words for YHWH. But I do think if you want to get to know someone better you start with learning their name. In Exodus 34:6 he introduces himself. "I am YHWH." In fact, he says his name twice in a row. My brother's name is a little unusual so when he meets someone he almost always has to repeat it to get their pronunciation even remotely close. And it seems like that is what YHWH is dealing with here. He knew his name would be misunderstood. Obviously, the Bible was not originally written in English so "YHWH" is actually the transliteration of the Hebrew letters yod-he-waw-he. These letters transliterate into the approximate English equivalents of YHWH. I use this to be as correct as possible to refer to the Living God. (The Hebrew letters are confusing to those unfamiliar and don't translate well onto all devices.) Sounding out the Hebrew letters gets us yah-a-wah or yah-hu-uh. Sounding out the English letters gets us yah-way. Yehovah would be a cousin of this. With the variety of worldwide accents some of us may need to adjust our enunciation as we learn more, and that's okay. Personally I think trying to pronounce someone's name correctly (even if you don't quite get there) is a lot more respectful than not using it, or worse yet, calling them by their enemy's name. Okay sure, you may say, but my Bible uses LORD all the time. How important can the name be if it's not in there? Hear me out on this because the following is probably the most ridiculous thing Bible translators have ever done. In the original texts of Scripture the name YHWH was in there all over the place, Genesis through Revelation. This is crazy to hear but nonetheless translators have removed the name of YHWH from Scripture over 7,000 times! Many versions (like the ESV) even mention this in the preface, that LORD is used a stand in to 'represent' the name. LORD is not a transliteration of yod-he-waw-he. These letters are not only incorrect, but also the name of the false deity from 1 Kings 18. Exodus 23:13 tells us we aren't to speak the names of false deities at all, let alone substitute for YHWH. "Do not add to the word which I command you, and do not take away from it." - Deuteronomy 4:2 Replacing the name of YHWH is taking away from Scripture. YHWH distinguishes his name from that of other deities for a reason. One reason is that there are a lot of things in this world that get worshiped as "God" or "the Lord." When I am in my conservative Christian hometown people talk about "God" and I know they are talking about the one of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But if I am on a college campus, talking with someone from a different religious background, or in a more multicultural city, "God" is used to refer a wide variety of things. I have personally heard the term used to talk about Islam's Allah, the deity behind the Hindu celebration of Diwali, reiki spirit guides, and a new age higher power. Followers of these 'gods' need to know that YHWH is different from their so called god. YHWH's name is so important to him that reverence for it is included as one of the ten most important commandments. Usually this gets translated as not to take it in vain. Read: don't use it like a swear word. Many rabbis have forbidden use of the name of YHWH so that the name could never be used incorrectly or inappropriately. Unfortunately, not using the name - thus causing people to forget it - is pretty much the opposite of what the command intends. A better translation of Exodus 20:7 would be not to empty his name. Don't bring it to nothing. Don't forget about it. We can see that Elijah clearly had no problem speaking aloud the name of YHWH. The Messiah had no problem using it either, and it got him a lot of push back from the Pharisees. He even says that he has restored the name of YHWH to the earth. What else does Scripture say about the name of YHWH? -The Messiah came in the name of YHWH. -John 5:43 -It will be upon his people. -Numbers 6:27 -Righteous people run to the name of YHWH and are safe. -Proverbs 18:10 -We are to esteem his name. -Psalm 29:2 -We are to love YHWH's name. -Isaiah 56:6 -Every generation should know and remember his name. -Psalm 45:17 -Salvation is found in the name of YHWH and Yahusha. -Joel 2:32, Acts 4:12 -We are to praise the name of YHWH. -Psalm 9:2 -We won't see the Messiah until we can say, "Blessed is he that comes in the name of YHWH." -Matthew 23:39, Luke 13:35 -Disciples should be baptized in the name of YHWH, as well as the Messiah and Holy Spirit. -Matthew 28:19 -Everyone who calls on the name of YHWH shall be delivered. -Romans 10:13 -The name of YHWH endures forever. -Psalm 135:13 It's amazing to see how important the name of YHWH is and by learning it we can better know our Creator. Like himself, his name is different from any other 'gods' of this world. May we never forget his name or bring it to ruin again. "And Elijah came to all the people and said, 'How long will you keep hopping between to opinions? If YHWH is Elohim follow him, but if the Lord is God then follow him.'" -1 Kings 18:21
